An international team of scientists has shown that the blood pressure-lowering effect of exercise is significantly reduced when people rinse their mouths with antibacterial mouthwash, rather than water – showing the importance of oral bacteria in cardiovascular health.

The answer, researchers say, lies in a liquid solution they created by mixing calcium and phosphate ions into an alcoholic solution with the organic compound trimethylamine – this in turn produced tiny clusters of calcium phosphate, the main component of enamel, with a diameter of just 1.5nm.